We are excited to announce that our Fab 25 Table Lamp, designed by ISM Objects, has received a prestigious Good Design Award for Product Design, recognising its outstanding design and innovation.

We work hard to design and manufacture innovative and sustainable contemporary lighting and it is an honour to receive this award alongside the high calibre of our industry peers

Fab 25 Lamp is the evolution of our original Fab Lamp designed in 1991, which won an Artist & Industry award for design and production. The original Fab Lamp embodied many of the concepts that we set out to explore when they established ISM Objects: local batch production, flat-pack assembly for economical transportation and disassembly for recycling at the end of the product lifecycle. There have been many advances in manufacturing and lighting technology since the Fab Lamp, so Simon and Celina designed a new product that referenced the original but incorporated innovative new features.

Like the original, Fab 25 is a modern and appealing table lamp. It has an elegant shape machined from aluminium and stainless steel and comes in a flat-pack gift box. It now also incorporates the latest technology including LED lamp, cordless battery power and USB re-charging.

We set ourselves a challenge to redesign an item that was very special to us and a major step in the evolution of our design careers. For both the Fab and Fab 25 lamps to receive industry awards is affirmation of our commitment to designing and manufacturing products based on progressive and sustainable thinking.

Good Design Australia hosted the annual awards ceremony at the Sydney Opera House on 17 May, celebrating the best of Australian design. This year marked the 60th anniversary of the awards and it attracted a record number of entries. Danish architect Jan Utzon congratulated all the 2018 winners, and the products will be showcased to the general public during Vivid Sydney from 25 to 27 May 2018 at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, Circular Quay.

We seek to create endearing and enduring products designed to bring a space to life, which has been integrated in our latest Grapho Bubble design that appears to have a wonderful life of its own.

Imbued with personality and character, our Grapho Bubble is skilfully handcrafted in our Mentone factory from beautiful Japanese rice paper, which provides the light with an interactive quality, making it an irreverent take on a classic paper ball light.

First launched at Melbourne’s DEN Fair 2017, the Grapho Bubble takes its name from the word meaning ‘to write’ or ‘to sketch’ as custom graphic designs can be added to the pendants during productions.

When illuminated, our Grapho Bubble comes to life in more ways than one. A small fan inside the Grapho Bubble pendant is connected to the sustainable LED light source and inflates the rice paper when switched on. The LED can also be dimmable (upon request) for a variety of ambient settings. The Grapho Bubble inflates in as little as 20 seconds from being switched on and when switched off, the fan stops turning the light and it gently deflates.

The Grapho Bubble is available in a diameter of 600mm and 1500mm.

We invite you to preview the Grapho Bubble’s interactive feature in the video below.

The Melton Library and Learning Hub by FMJT Architecture has set the benchmark for sustainable civic design in Australia. Built with the aim of revitalising and re-energising the local community, the project has received multiple awards for design excellence.

FMJT (Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp) is led by Design Director Richard Francis-Jones and Managing Director Jeff Morehen. The studio’s dedication to design excellence and the enhancement of the public domain is evident in their award-winning work, which includes the Auckland Art Gallery, Newcastle Museum and Macquarie University Library.

Set over two levels, the Melton Library and Learning Hub comprises a theatre and lecture rooms as well as recording and editing studios for use by local education centres.

The building's orientation and facade is designed to maximise natural light penetration, which helps to minimise electricity consumption. It also achieved a 92 per cent recycling rate from the demolition of the previous buildings on the site. It is the first library in the country to be awarded a 5 Star Green Star - Public Building Design rating by the Green Building Council of Australia.

We enjoyed working with FJMT to supply lighting designs for this award-winning civic space. Our black Boss Pendants were customised with brightly coloured interiors to reflect the playful library interior. The slimline circular pendants are made from spun aluminium and the light source is a choice of dimmable LED modules with either warm or cool colour temperatures.

The Melton Library and Learning Hub represents a vibrant and inspiring community asset and sets a new standard in sustainable design.

We Always seek to stay at the forefront, our beautiful Stippled Porcelain collection – a collaboration local ceramicist Steven McClure, has been created to complement the trend toward handcrafted, natural finishes in interior spaces.

McClure’s porcelain candleholder enchanted us, so we invited the craftsman to develop a lighting range that would showcase the natural beauty of the material. This was our first venture with an Australian craftsperson.

Melbourne-made Southern Ice Porcelain was selected for these pendants - it cries out to be illuminated, and the final result is raw and refined, allowing the material speak loudest. When lit there is a beautiful warmth that emanates.

When it comes to the Stippled Porcelain Range, Steven notes that he deliberately set out to allow these characteristics to stay in the work rather than submitting to more industrial processes and forms of the material, which would have created a more more uniform and controlled outcome, rather than the Stippled Porcelain range has a more fluid finish.

All these qualities of the material can be seen in the final finishes of each style in the range, which all vary slightly. When the porcelain is fired to its top temperature of almost 1300 degrees celsius, the material begins to soften slightly, and the juxtaposition of the matte finish of the unglazed outer surface with the glossiness of the glazed internal surface.

The final detail of this striking range is the hand finished embossing applied with a loose hand to again, avoid an overly manufactured uniformity, each of these make the illuminated object more visually compelling and allows the natural beauty of the porcelain to shine through.

ISM Objects Director Celina Clarke was appointed Chairperson of the 2016 Premier’s Design Awards. A respected luminary of Australian design, she's played a significant role in shaping the industry for more than two decades and her appointment as Chairperson is a testament to her reputation as an influential design leader.

Collaboration has always been a characteristic of Celina, and she has enjoyed partnering with other leading Australian designers, such as bernabeifreeman, Keith Melbourne and Daniel Barbera. Clarke is also committed to fostering emerging local design talent and launched the ISM Sparks mentoring program with Christopher in 2005.

While Clarke has received recognition throughout her ISM Objects partnership, including international exhibitions at New York’s MOMA and World Expo Milan, she says her appointment as Chairperson of the Premier’s Design Awards is a highlight.

The Premier’s Design Awards recognise and reward Victorian designers and businesses that use outstanding design in effective and sustainable ways. Categories include Architectural Design, Industrial and Product Design and, for the first time in2016, Fashion Design.

As Chairperson, Clarke was responsible for selecting and coordinating the panel of 24 international judges. Judges include Nick Bell Chair of Communication Design at University of the Arts. London; Louise Olsen, Creative Director of Dinosaur Designs; and Tara Mckenty, Creative Director at Google - Asia Pacific.